Thursday, March 24, 2011

fish, pruning, gnomes

Bridge over the moat at Groombridge Place.

They have cut down the condemned trees in The Grove. Today they are pruning the survivors. Crash- helmeted tree-surgeons climb into the high branches, suitably secured by ropes and straps. The cropped branches meanwhile are chewed into a sawdust down below by a grinding machine. It is noisy but the noise has a pleasing rural quality. Business in progress.

According to the current issue of Prospect magazine, quoting the Daily Telegraph, garden gnomes were first brought to England from Germany in 1874, by Charles Isham, a spiritualist who hoped that they would attract real gnomes to his Northamptonshire garden. True? Does it matter?

3 comments:

What a great photo, Joe! When I first looked at it, I thought I was looking down onto a boat on the surface of the water, then my eyes adjusted (or was it my brain that did?) and I saw the bridge arch and its refelction.

About Me

Compasses

Following their Handbook for Explorers collaboration on the Compasses site (link below), Lucy Kempton and I are working together on a new venture, Questions. This is a series of poems submitted by each of us alternately, and prompted in the case of each poem by the previous poem and a new question. It is a process of adventure and discovery. Join us for the ride.http://www.compasses-lucyandjoe.blogspot.com/